Building a National Security Powerhouse

Today’s world calls for greater collaboration to protect America’s national security infrastructure. UTSA is leading this charge, armed with the most powerful cyber, computing, cloud and data analytics teams of highly recruited faculty, government professionals, business professionals, along with our students. Now, with the vision of a new National Security Collaboration Center and a proposed School of Data Science becoming reality on our downtown campus, UTSA is the undisputed leader in cybersecurity education in a major city now referred to as #CyberCityUSA.

The economic future and well-being of San Antonio is very much tied to big data, data sciences, information management and technology, and cybersecurity. By creating an ecosystem here that brings together business strengths of our community and the research expertise of UTSA, we will establish San Antonio as the Silicon Valley of data science and information management.

- UTSA President Taylor Eighmy

UTSA defends cyber space through creative approaches in business, science, engineering, and liberal and fine arts. Five centers and institutes advance that work, which focuses on solving global security challenges in today’s increasingly technological world. San Antonio is among the nation’s largest cybersecurity hubs and home to the largest concentration of cybersecurity experts and industry leaders outside Washington, D.C. This uniquely positions the city and UTSA to lead the nation in cybersecurity research and workforce development together.

UTSA’s cybersecurity graduates are heavily recruited and are employed quickly. They are hired in governmental positions and with top national/international commercial companies. Meet some of our outstanding graduates and learn how they’re making the cyber world safer. Opportunties in cybersecurity are growing daily around the globe, as well as, our home city and state. And UTSA is ready to fill those positions with our highly trained graduates.

UTSA Cybersecurity Research Centers and Institutes

UTSA is a leader in open cloud technology. Its innovative Open Cloud Institute thinks outside the box by supporting cyber students with curriculum in cloud computing and big data and fostering collaborations with industry through its own open cloud, one of the largest in academia. OCI is a research and education laboratory that encourages research, the development and adoption of standards-based open technologies such as Open Compute, OpenStack and OpenFlow by providing infrastructure, platform and software.

By successfully integrating the efforts of academia, government and industry, the UTSA Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security has become a national leader in the advancement of state and community cybersecurity capabilities and collaboration. With support from Logistics Management Institute and the Retail Cyber Intelligence Sharing Center, UTSA leads the Information Sharing and Analysis Organization Standards Organization. Additionally, it is a founding member of the National Cybersecurity Preparedness Consortium, which provides research-based, cybersecurity-related training, exercises and technical assistance to local jurisdictions, counties, states and the private sector. Other focus areas include cyber defense competitions, cybersecurity training and exercises, and educational game development.

Housed in the UTSA College of Business, the Cyber Center for Security and Analytics conducts research on a wide variety of cybersecurity and cyber analytics topics. Focus areas include high-impact applied research to better secure people, organizations and their data; improved cyber-related decision making through advanced analytics; and multidisciplinary solutions for real-world challenges to support industry and government partners. The center also plays a key role in pioneering innovative, world-class education programs in cybersecurity, data analytics, and digital and biological pathogenic outbreaks.

The Institute for Cyber Security conducts basic and applied research in partnership with academia, government and industry. With a focus on the balance between security and privacy, its researchers are discovering new methodologies and innovations to keep cyber space safe. ICS researchers and their students are developing commercializable technologies and services that make a real-world impact. The ICS is creating a cybersecurity education pipeline through the newly established Center for Security and Privacy Enhanced Cloud Computing (C-SPECC) with support from a $5 million National Science Foundation grant.

The Texas Sustainable Energy Research Institute was founded by UTSA in 2010 to leverage UTSA’s diverse knowledge in energy and related areas, and to position San Antonio as a significant contributor to the 21st century global energy economy. The institute integrates scientific discovery, engineering innovation and policy deliberations with pragmatic implementation and a commitment to multicultural traditions to realize the promise of tomorrow’s America as a global energy leader.

No. 1 Cybersecurity program in the nation

- Ponemon Institute/Hewlett-Packard

No. 2 Cybersecurity graduate programs in the nation

- Universities.com

National Center of Academic Excellence designation in

UTSA has taken a leap forward with support from the University Board of Regents and private investments to advance Government, University and Industry (GUI) partnerships in the interest of national security by creating the National Security Collaboration Center (NSCC).

The NSCC will give GUI entities the ability to collaborate on scientific investigations and business enterprises by providing research laboratories with state-of-the art hardware and software; a computational Innovation Factory and business incubator to develop prototypes and concepts for the public good; a visualization laboratory to translate big data into images for large-scale, high resolution digital walls; and a high-performance computing center to support the research and development of algorithms and systems for addressing computational and data-intensive problems.

These resources illustrate UTSA’s dedication and resolve to advance research, education and workforce development in cybersecurity, data analytics and cloud computing to improve national security and global defense.

NSCC Specialty Areas

Cybersecurity and Cloud Computing

Counter-Terrorism

Election Security

Cyber Attack/Deterrence and Policy

Infectious Diseases and Biological Threats

Military Health and Wellness

Demographics Methods and Trends

Governance and Policy

Emergency Management and Communications

Border Studies

Advanced Materials

Nanotechnology

Critical Infrastructure Protection

Robotics and UAVs

Analytics

High Performance Computing

Artificial Intelligence

Machine Learning

Data Visualization

UTSA expands Downtown Campus with a National Security Collaboration Center and planned new School of Data Science

San Antonio's National Security Landscape

Join the Momentum Todday as UTSA leads San Antonio down a path to become Cyber City USA. UTSA will be the leader in providing a ready workforce for cybersecurity and data science opportunities worldwide.